Harry Potter and a Fidelius Fiasco
by ksunik97
Summary: As an orphan, Harry has never been told that he shouldn't experiment without supervision. Now, he has to deal with the consequences of screwing up a ritual while he tries to survive the Triwizard Tournament. The question is - are those consequences of good or bad kind? Only time will show. A two-shot, no romance, slightly BAMF!Harry.


_AN._

_Well, I'm not sure if that is such an original idea, but I can promise you that I haven't seen it yet. If you have, tell me where, I would love to read it. I must admit though, that I started thinking about the Fidelius after rereading The Black Comedy by nonjon. Thank you, nonjon! But seriously, if you haven't heard of it, go read this awesome story. _

_This is all unbeta-ed. So, if you see a mistake (or, probably when you notice my many mistakes. Sorry) tell me. Every time I correct my spelling, punctuation or double-check my facts, this world becomes slightly better. Keep that in mind when you review! __J_

_Like any other fanfiction writer, I do not own anything you recognise and even most things you don't. If I did, I wouldn't have already bought that Awesome Water Motorcycle. Ah, unachievable dreams..._

_For this story, I am assuming that, as Halloween means a lot more to wizards than to us ordinary folk(how else would you explain the fact that Voldemort always did something awful on that particular day), it is a big day in Hogwarts. Therefore, I am giving a bunch of magical kids a day off and a pile of presents. Yay._

Harry sighed. It was two days before Halloween and the school was practically bursting with excitement. Teachers (excluding Snape) were spending every second of their free time decorating the old castle, Peeves was amusing himself by stealing girls' underwear and putting it into boys' dorms, Hagrid was dotting on his precious pumpkins. Students were chattering in the corridors about costumes, Halloween feast, presents, and some other nonsense that Harry honestly wouldn't have cared for even under normal circumstances. Usually he would have gone through the routine of the day – _presents, food, homework, a walk, more food, a game of chess with Ron, a lecture from Hermione, even more food, a traumatic event of some kind, and sleep_ – without much of a fuss and trying not to think about what exactly happened on this day many years ago. But that was not the case with this year's celebrations. This time, Harry wasn't indifferent or bored.

No.

He was almost _happy. _

Despite his relatively calm appearance, on the inside Harry was feeling giddy and positively jumping from excitement and anticipation. He was barely stopping himself from fleeing to a somewhat secluded place right then and there instead of waiting till the curfew. But he knew that he couldn't afford someone interrupting him, or worse – completely destroying his plans. Not now. Not when he was so close to finishing his little project. This last piece of puzzle he had acquired was huge and had a potential to turn his world upside down. If everything worked as he planned, he would finally achieve his dream.

Harry sighed again. He was itching to sneak out to the Room of Requirement and examine the source of his excitement – a thin book with worn out gray covers, and a title that took his breath away first time he saw it - _Fidelius: Fascinatingly Fabulous Facts. _He found it in the vault of the Potter Family_._ Harry had been collecting information on that particular spell for several months now after the whole mess with Wormtail. After Sirius fled with Buckbeack, Harry researched the Fidelius and found out that the barrier the Fidelius erected was inpenetratable and impossible to locate. The only way it could be passed was with the permission of the Secret Keeper.

And that was the biggest weakness of the defence. There was no known way to cast the spell without a Secret Keeper. And it couldn't be the caster, either. At least, that had never been mentioned in any way, shape, or form. Since then Harry had been trying to figure out a way to combine the roles of a caster and a Secret Keeper as he didn't want to trust anyone with his secrets.

Harry noiselessly slipped out of the common room under his cloak, and applied charms that would mask his scent and any sound he would make. After all, it wouldn't do to get caught when he was so close to his goal. He easily navigated in the familiar hallways being careful to avoid the patrol routs and checking with the Marauders' Map every five minutes. He had a close call when an older Hufflepuff student suddenly emerged from the kitchens, but the rest of the trip went smoothly. Finally, he was pacing in front of a stone wall of the seventh floor corridor and quietly mumbling "I need a room to practice the Fidelius. I need a room to practice the Fidelius. I need a room..."

When Harry stepped inside, he was not instantly awed by a gigantic hall, nor was he amazed by a spectacular collection of ancient books on the most obscure subjects. No, the room was fairly small, with comfortable-looking couch, a coffee table and a couple of silver instruments, which Harry recognized as standard magic-amplifiers. One side of the room was completely empty, with bare stone walls and floor. He settled on the couch and opened the small grey book. The first four chapters describing the process of casting the spell Harry skipped – he could recite the incantation and perform wand movements in his sleep. What interested him; however, were the last chapter of the book.

By some strange quirk of fate, this book was the only one that actually touched the issue of combining the roles of the caster and the Secret Keeper. The author of _Fidelius: Fascinatingly Fabulous Facts_ described his attempts at this in great detail, but in the end even he admitted his inability to achieve what he wanted. The lack of result would have deterred anyone from their path, but Harry inherited his stubbornness from James Potter, the same James Potter who had been chasing after Lily Evans for six years even if she clearly expressed her dislike of him. Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise, that Harry was still full of hope and immediately started preparing to try the most successful attempt described in the book.

Harry reread the chapter one last time, to confirm that he remembered the instructions correctly, put the book on the small table, and began digging around his shoulder bag – not bottomless, not enchanted in any way, without any active artefacts – searching for a small leather pouch. With a victorious 'Aha!' he pulled it out and then promptly cursed as his finger got scratched by a quill. Setting the bag on the floor, Harry turned his attention back to the item in his hand. The pouch contained half a dozen of pebbles with different runes engraved on them and a white marble ball that should serve as a secondary focus. Harry arranged the pebbles in a vaguely round shape on the stone floor and checked that the runes were in a correct order.

Even if Fidelius was largely referred to as a spell or maybe a ward, it mostly resembled a ritual. It was the wandwork that was unusual and caused all the confusion.

Satisfied, Harry turned thoughtful for a second and then smirked and put a small half-burned piece of parchment with the words _Harry Potter_ on it in the centre of the circle. It seemed fitting, somehow, to hide the very thing that condemned him to participating in a deadly Tournament from everyone. _'If I could hide myself that easily, so that nobody would recognise me'. _Harry then drew his wand and tapped it lightly several times until it started glowing and then hovered about one meter above the ground. After a little nudge, the ball flew lazily towards the rune stones and around it, never stopping.

Everything was ready.

Harry breathed in, and started chanting steadily in Latin. He briefly reflected on how hard it was to remember all the right pronunciations and how much fun he had trying to decipher the actual meanings of many simple spells when he got tired of the Fidelius. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and intoned the last word:

– Fidelio!

Now, if everything had gone as planned there would have been a white flash, the marble stone would have disintegrated, and Harry would have felt a knowledge of the Fidelius settle around his mind (he didn't actually understand that part, the book was a bit confusing on that point). However, Harry was known to be a magnet for trouble and accidents seemed to follow him everywhere. Thus, when a slight change in a traditional incantation was combined with a smudge of blood on the marble ball and Harry's earlier thoughts, Magic acted in a completely unexpected way . The Room of Requirement did what it was made for – the unspoken wish was granted.

Infused with the additional power of the caster's blood and the magic of the Room, the Fidelius became very strong, too strong for Harry to contain in normal circumstances, but now it seemingly acted on its own. The promised flash of light finally appeared, nearly blinded the boy, and suddenly as soon as it started, everything became still.

The only thing that indicated that something has gone wrong was small piles of ash in the places where rune stones and a parchment saying _Harry Potter _were.

Harry stood up from the floor, and a small part of his mind wondered when he had been knocked down. He peered at the remains of his equipment still in shock and mostly confused about the whole ordeal. He sighed, it was already quite late, he would have to try again later and maybe a different variation...

When Harry got to the Gryffindor common room, it was mostly deserted with only a couple of seventh years lounging in the armchairs by the fireplace. He was so exhausted that he didn't even see how their eyes became slightly glazed when they looked up at the sounds of someone entering. Nor did he notice how they seemingly ignored him an immediately went back to their business. He quickly climbed the stairs, changed into his pyjamas and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Harry dreamed of marble goblets spitting out pumpkins and bats that exploded in a white flash when they touched him.

That's all I've written for now, but I think I'll have at least one more chapter for the fun parts.

Probably.

I hope so.

Have a nice life and don't kick puppies! J


End file.
